Thursday, March 27, 2008

Is Emo the New Punk?


When did emo become such a threat? There was a time when punks would get beat up for the clothes that they wore - now they are administering the punishment!? In recent weeks, a wave of emo bashings has swept across Mexico, several news agencies have reported, fuelled by punks, rockabillies, goths, metalheads and basically anyone who’s not emo. A link to video footage and the article here.


According to Daniel Hernandez, who’s been covering the anti-emo riots on his blog Intersections, the violence began March 7, when an estimated 800 young people poured into the Mexican city of Queretaro’s main plaza “hunting” for emo kids to pummel. Then the following weekend similar violence occurred in Mexico City at the Glorieta de Insurgents, a central gathering space for emos. Hernandez also reports that several anti-emo riots have now also spread to various other Mexican cities. Via the Austin American Statesmen, several postings on Mexican social-networking sites, primarily organising spot for these “emo hunts,” have been dug up and translated. One states: “I HATE EMOS!!! They are not even people, they are so stupid, they cry over meaningless things… My school is infested with them, I want to kill them all!”

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is Emo the New Punk?

No.

Anonymous said...

Uh, I'm old. what the hell is emo?

Anonymous said...

According to Wikipedia:

Sstarting in the mid-1990s, the term emo began to refer to the indie scene that followed the influences of Fugazi, which itself was an offshoot of the first wave of emo. Bands including Sunny Day Real Estate and Texas Is the Reason had a more indie rock style of emo, more melodic and less chaotic. The so-called "indie emo" scene survived until the late 1990s, as many of the bands either disbanded or shifted to mainstream styles. As the remaining indie emo bands entered the mainstream, newer bands began to emulate the mainstream style. As a result, the term "emo" became a vaguely defined identifier rather than a specific genre of music.

Critics of modern emo have argued that there is a tendency toward increasingly generic and homogenized style. Many popular bands have attempted to disassociate themselves with the "emo" tag; some have adopted the genre designation post-hardcore. Despite the criticism, the modern version of emo has maintained mainstream popularity. However, given the disfavor of the term "emo", the future of the genre remains unclear.